Tori Stafford trial: Why did a Star story about murderer Terri-Lynne McClintic tell readers that Necro is a Jewish-American rapper?

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Israeli expatriates, rapper Ron Raphael Braunstein describes himself as “Jewish, half Romanian and half Israeli.”

Braunstein, better known within the world of hardcore hip hop as “Necro,” recently released the first track and video for what he calls his “Jewish Gangsterz” project. Titled “Tough Jew/Rabbi Holding Guns,” and part of his upcoming EP “Murder Murder Kill Kill,” the words are violent, obscene and disturbing, representative of the hip-hop sub-genre Necro defines as “death rap.”

I’ll spare you the graphic lyrics. Truth be told, I’m no fan of rap, especially this ultraviolent garbage. I’d never heard of this guy until recently when the Star reported that a half-dozen of his songs were played in court during the Michael Rafferty trial.

Rafferty was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the first-degree murder, abduction and sexual assault of 8-year-old Tori Stafford. The prosecution’s “star” witness, Terri-Lynne McClintic, Rafferty’s partner in the brutal crime, was a Necro fan.

As reporter Raveena Aulakh, who covered the “gut-wrenching” 10-week murder trial, wrote last week in a story about McClintic: “As a young teen she listened to Necro, a Jewish-American rapper who says he invented death rap.”

Not surprising to me, given the reality that sensitivities regarding religion — and race — run strong in this community, and we know that individuals and special-interest groups are on alert for any perceived offence, this single sentence provoked complaints from several readers questioning why the story included a reference to this rapper’s religion.

“What is the relevance of being Jewish-American to this story? If he was just another of many white rappers would she have written about him as a Christian-American rapper?” one asked.

Added another: “Was it necessary for this reporter to bring in the religion of this apparently unstable rap artist which has nothing to do with the subject matter in this article?”

The Star has long had a policy stipulating that “no reference, direct or indirect, should be made to a person’s race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.”

Was Necro’s Jewish background pertinent? I don’t think there is a clear answer here. Determining the relevance of this biographical fact is a subjective judgment call.

Let’s start with the reporter’s reasoning: “One reason why I think I included the Jewish-American bit was because it was incongruous, because we almost always associate violent, misogynist rap with black musicians and this wasn’t one,” Aulakh told me. “It was just an interesting detail.”

That makes sense to me. Necro is indeed Jewish and he self-describes as a Jewish rapper. In numerous interviews, he refers to the challenge of being a Jewish rapper in a field dominated by black artists.

Even Jewish News One, which describes itself as the world’s first Jewish-interest news channel in the English language, referred to Necro as a Jewish-American rapper.

Of course, the issue here is linking Necro’s religious background to the horrors of the Tori Stafford murder.

“Why would the Star make any attempt to connect a repulsive child killer with the ethnicity or religion of the rap artist who supposedly inspired her?” asked one reader.

I understand the point that Necro’s religious affiliation is not relevant in the context of McClintic’s heinous crime. Necro might better have been described — as he was in reports from other news organizations — as a death rapper. That’s more in context with the McClintic connection.

Still, it seems to me that some read far more into Aulakh’s words than was ever intended. Several readers suggested the reference would serve to fan the flames of anti-Semitism.

“Your reporter implies that death rap leading to murder is somehow associated with Jews,” said one.

Said another: “It appears it is being implied covertly that because this ‘death rap’ was written by a person whose religion happened to be Jewish this caused her (McClintic) to commit this horrendous murder — ergo, it is the fault of the Jews.”

Certainly, as the reporter made clear, that was not her intention. And even though I’m well aware of the sensitivities here, I was still taken aback by such an extreme interpretation.

I think it also bears mentioning that Aulakh wrote many thousands of words over the course of the 10-week Rafferty trial. Throughout, as much graphic testimony about Tori’s murder was presented in court, she made many smart decisions about what to include and what to leave out of her reports.

It is easy for me now, with hindsight, to conclude that the more judicious choice here would have been to avoid any mention of the death rapper’s religious affiliation.

But certainly this reporter had no ill-intention. She doesn’t deserve a bad rap here.

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